page_title: Fitzgerald, Alberta
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fitzgerald, Alberta / History
context_page_description: Fitzgerald, also known as Fort Fitzgerald and originally Smith's Landing, is an unincorporated community in northern Alberta within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, located 15.4 kilometres south of the Northwest Territories border, and 23 kilometres southeast of Fort Smith.
context_section_description: Prior to the extension of railway service to Hay River, Northwest Territories, on Great Slave Lake, all cargo being shipped to or from the north had to be portaged from Fitzgerald to Fort Smith, to avoid four impassable rapids. The community was known as Smith's Landing until 1915 when it was renamed Fort Fitzgerald after the late Francis Joseph Fitzgerald.
caption: Smith's Landing, circa 1910
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